"From The Boy To The IceMan" | TP&C | Episode 93

Think Pieces and Conversations – Episode 93: “From the Boy to the Iceman”

In Episode 93 of Think Pieces and Conversations, we break down Drake’s latest evolution with Iceman and what this project truly represents in the bigger picture of his career. This isn’t just another album review — this is a conversation about transformation, survival, isolation, and what happens when the biggest artist in the world finally realizes the game was never built to love him forever.

We discuss how Drake’s battles over the years — from the Kendrick feud, to industry betrayal, to watching friends, collaborators, and even fans switch sides the moment weakness appeared — shaped the mentality behind Iceman. This episode explores how Drake went from “The Boy” to a colder, more calculated version of himself: the Iceman.

I also speak on the psychology of being at the top of the music industry for over a decade, how fame changes your relationships, and how the industry operates when they sense vulnerability. We analyze the sound, the themes, the confidence, the pain, and why this album feels like a revelation rather than just another release.

Was this the evolution Drake needed?
 Is this the beginning of his final form as an artist?
 Did the pressure, betrayal, and competition finally sharpen him into something different?

We also discuss what the future may hold for Drake after Iceman, what this means for hip-hop moving forward, and why this project may become one of the most important turning points of his entire career.

Transcript

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The biggest part of Iceman's concept is Evolution. Evolution. Cause the boy became a man, but he didn't just become a man. He became Iceman. He became more understanding of what this business actually is. And the business is cold. The business is freezing. You understand what the game requires. The game requires you to watch your own back. You can't rely on people to take your side when it's not beneficial. This shit is business and it's the music business. One of the darkest businesses to be in. And you're at the top of it. Her Lost was a good project, too. That was a collab. I like plot twists from the get-go. That's number 12 on this album. I always like plot twist. The more I play plot twist, the better it gets. The more I play plot twist, the better it gets. A lot of people didn't like Lil Birdie. I like Lil Birdie. The more I play Lil Birdie, the better it gets. Some good music that came out. Some good music. Objectively. Subjectively. Um Iceman dropped. And I gave it a little bit of time before I said, you know what? I want to review this. I'm not known for doing music reviews. That's not really what I'm here for. But the story behind Iceman and how it came and became to become a good album, in my opinion. It's the narrative behind it. And it brought out it awakened a different type of animal inside Drake. Or it made Drake remember. Drake has a song called Make Them Remember on this album. It made Drake remember. Number 14, Make Them Remember. Welcome to another episode of Think Pieces and Conversations, man. I be slacking. I ain't been consistent in dropping episodes. Cuz if there ain't nothing to talk about or that I care to talk about, I ain't gonna talk about it. That's the beautiful thing about being a small creator. So let's talk about this. I'm gonna be honest. Off the rip. I'm gonna talk about the other two albums. It's gonna be pretty short. Um Maid of Honor and Habib T. I liked two or three songs off of both those projects. That's it. Now it might sound crazy that I I said that. It might sound crazy, but I promise it doesn't. Because those albums sounded like he just put those together, and sonically is what made it a cohesive or those projects cohesive. It's straight off of what instruments they use, the subject matter that he talk about, but the songs sound like they just put them together, and the the thing that really meshed the songs together is the instrumentation. It wasn't really everything was jumbled up all over the place. Having fun, uh BBWs. It was it it had no substance in none of that shit. Um I have a trained ear to understand what people will like. And of course, I understand what I like, and of course I understand what the world or the majority of what the world is gonna like because good music is good music. So Iceman, there is good music on here, really good music. He has exceeded my expectations. He's definitely exceeded my expectations with this album. There's a couple songs that I like the most. But we'll start with the first song, make them cry. Right? We'll start with the first song. I'll play like three seconds of this shit. Notice he got four songs on here that starts with make them make them cry, make them pay, make them remember, make them know. And it's been a while since we got in the conceptual Drake album where the subject matter, the sounds, the verses, the hooks. Most of it is cohesive. If not all of it is cohesive. This is a complete body of work. It's hard to listen to this album without just playing it by itself, without playing the songs together in one playlist. I mean, there's a couple songs you might throw on your workout playlist, there's a couple songs you might throw on your RB playlist. It makes you want to listen to that song, go to albums, and hit shuffle on the album. Each song. Two songs I didn't like. I'm gonna be honest, y'all. I I'm this might be a hot take. It might be a hot take. And I don't care. My hot take for this album is offer Drake just artistically, in terms of features, whatever. When it comes to 21 Savage and Sexy Red, this might be controversial. I don't care. Drake doesn't need to do no more songs or collaborations with 21 Savage or Sexy Red. Like I hated. What's the name of this song? What's the name of the song that's on uh Damn, it's not on here? Nah, it is on here. I just can't find it. I must have deleted it off. I deleted this shit. I deleted the song off the album. It's called Bees on the Table. Bees on the Table. I deleted it. I got it, I got it out of here. I was like, yo, I'm good. Right? I got it out of here. I did like the second half. The hook and the first half of the song, I hated. So it made me hate the song. You could have put that song on them other albums that you put out. Because them other albums, I hated those two. Don't like them. I know some of them is gonna be played outside. I might have them outside. It's gonna give the same effect as Honestly Nevermind for me. Play that shit one time. I don't play it no more. I don't like the album. But I understand when you're on a beach, you're somewhere hot, there's drinks flowing, just playing in the background. Honestly, never mind is gonna work. Maid of Honor, they got songs on there that's gonna work. Habiti, they're gonna they got songs on there that's gonna work for a different setting. I'm more of a I'm gonna be in my car driving, going to places, and I need a playlist for that. I'm gonna be at the gym working out. I'm gonna need songs for that. I'm gonna need a playlist for that. I'm gonna need a concept for that. The concept for Iceman. The concept for the Iceman album is it could be revenge. It could that that could be part of the uh concept of Iceman. The biggest part of Iceman's concept is evolution. Evolution. Cause the boy became a man, but he didn't just become a man. He became Iceman. He became more understanding of what this business actually is. And the business is cold. The business is freezing. When people aren't on your side, or they seem or you seem like you're gonna lose, and you're the biggest, you have a target on your back. He figured that out. But he figured that out during the beef, the last beef he was on, the Kendrick beef. He figured that out. He was like, damn. But it had to happen. You going through whatever you went through with people turning their back, thinking you got you about to fall off. Your songs and music isn't hitting no more. You're not really caring. Everything sounds lackluster in your music. I didn't like the last couple projects that you soloed, Drake. Because you sounded like you didn't care. You probably had three or four songs per album that I liked from the last four, besides um the one you did with Party Next Door. That was the best project you have, but that was a collab. Her Lost was a good project too. That was a collab. The albums or the the EPs you dropped, scary hours, scary hours too. For all the dogs, forgettable albums. I'm gonna be honest, bro, forgettable albums. From my own opinion. This the way you was writing on this, you sounded like, at least on Iceman for this album, you sounded like you got back your love for music again. The other albums you made, you didn't sound like you loved it no more. You were just making the music because you had a studio there at the crib. You gotta you you you're an artist, you're supposed to go to the studio, whatever. It's it's it's whatever. It's it's you're taking a piss, you're not taking your time. That's what the other albums sound like. Iceman sound like you had a point to prove, and you proved that point, and also you made some timeless music on here, and I'm gonna be honest, this is gonna be a hot take too. Iceman is gonna be a biggest project, it's gonna be a biggest album, and people are gonna put this album with your greatest albums. Songs are starting to grow even more on me. More than I thought. I always like plot twists. The more I play plot twist, the better it gets. The more I play plot twist, the better it gets. A lot of people didn't like Lil Birdie. I like Lil Birdie. The more I play Lil Birdie, the better it gets. The more I play Lil Birdie, the better it gets. That's just a fact. Like, ran to Atlanta. First time I played it, I liked it. A lot of people don't really like the song. Based off of whatever the politics were with Future putting uh Kendrick on a song that started the whole beef, which you can objectively say. But I want these guys to get back together. This is business. And if this last spat didn't show y'all that this shit is business, I don't know what to tell y'all. Ran to Atlanta is a good song. Actually, one of my favorites on the album. Whether other people like it, like I like it, doesn't matter to me. I like dust, I like make them cry, I like whisper whisper my name. There's a lot of substance in the gumbo pot of this album. It's crazy how he used the Michael Jackson glove. Actually, it's not crazy. The Michael Jackson glove is the album club, Iceman. I heard some opinions out here with yo, he about to have his biggest deal yet. He about to have this, he about to do that, and it's showing that Michael Jackson had that same parallel when he was alive. And I'm like, but Michael Jackson wasn't black and Jewish and the biggest, and didn't discuss politics at the same time. He didn't do that, he was controversial. Drake stays in his lane. He doesn't get into politics, he doesn't get into the controversies. He just does his business and goes home. Smashing these other dudes' hoes, all that. That's what he do. I don't agree with that. I don't agree with other people smashing other dudes' chicks. But that's the karma that he had to fight through because during his beef, the people that didn't like the shit that he was doing with their bitches, they showed up. They showed up in droves to make sure that he got taken down when it was time for him to get taken down. Everybody was dancing and not like us. He came underprepared for that battle. He wasn't hungry. But he was still lax. He didn't take Kendrick that serious. But people took Kendrick serious. The allegations that were made by Kendrick, people ran with. It doesn't matter if it's actually a real thing. The things that are being said. Is the things being said entertaining? Yes, they were entertaining. I don't know if Drake, if Drake is a pedophile, I've never heard no things like that. But that doesn't matter. If you can make them believe that it is what it is, they got him. He came back with Iceman two years, spoke about how these things made him feel. It's not about reigniting the beef with uh Mr. Kendrick. It was about telling his side of the story. And I think he captured that effectively. Effectively. This album, you know what I you know what I hated about Drake's old albums that he that he put out, which sounded very um just uninspired. Maybe it's my ear, but when I'm listening to an artist and the songs don't sound like they've been, you know, really doctored to be good, and the flows and patterns are very predictable. The things being said is predictable, the things being said is uninspiring. That shit pisses me off. I don't like that shit. Lil Baby sounds like that today. All his music sounds very uninspiring. Flow patterns, word choices. Seems like he just trying to get through it. Just trying to get through the two and a half, three, three and a half minutes. Put the song out. If it works, it works. If it don't, it don't. This shit was engineered word for word. Iceman Drake's Iceman album. Every song was engineered to make a point to address a problem or many problems. To the make to to to to talk about something to create a discussion to make people remember who this guy was to make people understand that he's the biggest artist in the rap game without question today. And people questioned that two years ago. Or however many years ago that was when the Kendrick beef happened. People question that. This evolution that Drake is on, we can call him Iceman now. He's probably gonna call himself Iceman when he hops on these records. That Kendrick would have had a very he don't Kendrick wouldn't have he wasn't gonna take this guy light at all. This is something that Kendrick would have really had to yo, I might lose this battle. This is a focused Drake. This is the Drake that people are scared of. People are terrified of this Drake. On the album on Iceman, a lot of people got mentioned, a lot of clever wordplay happened. Maybe the maybe there wasn't a whole bunch of hit records on here. But that was the key for Drake. As I heard from another podcast, he is the hit, he is the trend. He is the trend. He never needed to fit in with none of these guys. He came with a sound when he first came in, and he was like, I'm gonna do this my way. People started to bite off of that because they never heard it before, mastered and doctored in such a way where he became the hitmaker of rap, collected Grammys throughout the years, wrote for people, had some classic albums, had classic featured verses that may or may have may have made the most songs without those verses on those features with his name on it, without him being featured on songs with his name, his verse on certain songs, such as a stay skin. Scheming, those records wouldn't have been as impactful as they are right now, or what they was. Iceman had to show everybody what it was. And I ain't gonna lie, I know you lost the Kendrick battle. We knew that. I know that. This is objectively speaking. This version of you is the best version of you. This is your villain error. You understand what the game is considered to be. You understand what the game requires. The game requires you to watch your own back. You can't rely on people to take your side when it's not beneficial. This shit is business and it's the music business. One of the darkest businesses to be in. And you're at the top of it. What is Drake gonna do after this? Whatever he wants. What is Drake gonna do after this? He's probably gonna sell like 700,000 copies of Iceman. It's gonna go crazy. Because the music keeps growing. It's not a one and done. It's not a yo, I gotta go back and listen to it. Let me see. He said so much on each song that because of the subject matter that he's speaking of, you're gonna want to go back because there is a part of your brain, especially mine, where I'm hearing the songs, I'm like, wow, he's he really putting that together, and he's on beat, and he's not predictable. He got creative with the flows. Excellent album. Right now, I gave it like a 7.5 out of 10 the first time I heard it. I ain't gonna lie. It's out of 9 right now. Right now, as of today, the 20th of May, this is a Wednesday, five days after the album came out, five or six days after the album came out. It's a nine out of ten for me right now. People might not agree with that, but I'm objective when it comes to music, even though music is subjective. This thing is a good album. I keep listening to it, I keep playing it. Replay value is very important when it comes to me writing an album high. How will this play out in the future? In the in the future for the music industry? I don't know. Is Drake independent right now? I don't know. Maybe he is. Who knows? Whenever they announce whatever he gets, what is he gonna do? What tour he's gonna put out, what tour he's gonna hop hop on and uh treat the world with Iceman and Habibti and Maid of Honor. Bring out his friends that he has left. Who knows what it's gonna evolve to? All I know is that Drake evolved into an artist that he needed to be for this album and for the future. He had to let people know, like, yo, this is really me. And he accomplished that. Make sure you guys like, comment, subscribe to the channel. This was another episode of Think Pieces of Conversations music review for the albums that Drake put out, mainly Iceman. Holla at me, man. We'll see you on the next one. I'm out of here.